Games of chance are well known activities whose outcomes are strongly influenced by randomizing devices and upon which players may wager money as they forecast outcomes. Common randomizing devices include dice, spinning tops, playing cards, roulette wheels, prize wheels, and numbered balls drawn from containers. Games of chance have been played throughout all of human history and are considered to be a popular pastime by many. Players of games of chance are attracted to new and exciting methods of game play as well as new and exciting randomizing devices and table game layouts. For this reason, the gaming industry is continuously developing new games, new randomizing devices and new table game layouts to maintain player interest and attract new players as more game play means increased revenue for the gamer operator.
Games of chance that include money wagers are typically regulated by governing authorities. These governing authorities enforce laws and regulations that are enacted to curtail certain kinds of games as well as certain kinds of randomizing devices in order to minimize irregularities and possible cheating. For example, in some jurisdictions, the use of dice or roulette wheels to resolve a game outcome, i.e., as the randomizing device, has been curtailed. Instead, randomizing devices that use playing cards have been more frequently utilized as they enjoy fewer restrictions in games of chance played for money than dice and roulette wheel randomizing devices.
Casino games typically include a playing surface, for example, a felt or cloth table betting layout, which generally includes a plurality of player positions distributed around the table. The betting layout also generally includes various wagering areas where players may place wagers on the outcome of the game. Once the outcome of the game of chance has been determined, i.e., a winning number or card selected, a dealer associated with the table typically resolves the wagers that have been placed in the various betting areas by paying out wagers made on the winning outcome and removing wagers that were made on non-winning outcomes. Before resolving the wagers, the dealer often uses a dolly marker or the like and places it on the layout in the appropriate wagering area to designate the winning outcome. This allows players to see the selected outcome and also assists the dealer in properly resolving the wagers made on the outcome. This process can be relatively cumbersome and if there are multiple winning outcomes, multiple markers are usually employed. Thus, players may not always be able to readily distinguish winning outcomes from losing outcomes.
Additionally, conventional dolly markers can sometimes be difficult to see and can be overlooked by the dealer, which can result in errors in the process of resolving any wagers made on the outcome of the game of chance. These dealer errors, also known as bleed, are known to cost casinos significant amounts of money each year.
It would thus be desirable to provide an improved layout for a table game of chance that minimizes the opportunity for dealer error and also increases player enjoyment.